Inspired by the following questions, here are a couple of scores I imagined. The first is for the audience and the second is for 3 performers.
Questions:
-how are we asking the audience to participate in desire? -can we ask the audience to participate in desire?
-who is the subject and who is the object?
-does the audience have a voice?
-what can the audience take home? (pearls?)
-do the participants ever change roles? Does dancer become camera person etc.?
Score for audience
Preparation:
Tape off 3-4 play areas of different shapes and sizes, inside the taped area invitingly arrange cushions, 7 silky scarves (aka dance of the 7 veils that Salome was said to have done), and bowls of pearls (some strung and some loose). For each play area place a video camera on a tripod at varying distances from it.
Installation:
During 20-ish min time, while audience is roaming freely, play music that has bits of the publicity about Maud Allan in it.
Prompt for entering the play area:
An invitation to play!
Play!
Decorate!
Feel the textures!
Take Selfies!
Enjoy!
Upon entering you are giving your permission to be video-taped.
Feel free to interact with the camera, or not, in any way you wish including blocking or revealing what you want to be seen.
At any time you wish, you may step out of the area or take a turn at the camera or just watch from the inside or outside.
Prompt for viewing through the camera:
An invitation for mindful viewing
As you look through the camera, notice the frame around the edges
Compare what you see through the camera and what you can see beyond
Be aware of how you position your own body to look through the camera.
Imagine being an outside viewer and notice how you are adding to the picture.
Be mindful if others are waiting a turn and you may choose to take a turn in the dance and play area or move to the outside to watch.
Score for 3 performers
Set a circle performance area with cushions, 7 scarves, bowls of pearls
Set a dancer/viewer area outside the performance area looking in
Set a camera inside the performance area looking out and live feed projected on scarves
Set a text reading area outside the perimeter of the performance area looking in
Round 1: Original
Perform text, movement and video as originally created in the 2014 group study
Round 2: Text remix
Camera person chooses one item to decorate another performer. That performer moves to the camera position and the camera person takes the other performers’ place.
reader can read part or all of the text and dancer improvises in response, using 90percent of the original movement vocabulary. The camera person follows the dancer.
Round 3: Movement remix
Camera person chooses one item to decorate another performer. That performer moves to the camera position and the camera person takes the other performers’ place.
Dancer improvises using 90percent of the original movement vocabulary, the reader follows repeating all or parts of the text, fragmenting and repeating, the camera person responds to the dancer, and occasionally moves over to the text reader.
Round 4: Camera remix
Camera can choose who or what to film, the dancer responds to the camera using 90 percent of the original movement vocabulary but is also able to use the scarves or other means to block or modify the viewing experience. The text is read in fragments and even the syllables are fragmented and extended.
